Small Business Resources, Business Advice and Forms from AllBusiness.com
 

Optimize Your Online Reputation

Friday, January 25 2008

You've likely heard of these situations or had them happen yourself: Unfavorable things are being said online and those documents start to rank well on search engines. When a "your brand sucks.com" web site or blog post starts to rank in the top ten on Google, it can be a very unsettling situation.

Often times it's the big brand occurrences that get publicized. However, small businesses are just as susceptible to dissenters and angry bloggers as big companies are.

People are empowered to publish content online now more than ever. Blog search engine Technorati is currently tracking over 100 million blogs. What is a small business owner or marketer to do when blogs or other publishing platforms start to post negative comments or information that affects your brand reputation in a negative light?

Within the fields of search engine marketing (SEM) and public relations there is a discipline called online reputation management. Through a combination of optimizing content on and off site along with link building and online PR efforts, a brand, company or person can "own" Google's top ten search results.

Here are 5 tips for taking charge of your reputation online.

  1. Start a blog. This is the single most productive way to influence online reputation.
  2. Socialize with profiles. Promote your LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media profiles and they'll start to rank well in the search results.
  3. Optimize images. This ensures that your positive photos of you and your brand rank high.
  4. Optimize video. Videos are now showing up in Google search results.
  5. Optimize press releases. Press release pickups by blogs and online publishing sites create multiple representations of your brand.

Through an ongoing effort of intentional content creation and promotion, search engines will start to recognize the signals of credibility being created and reward your efforts with higher rankings.

Also, don't wait until you have a problem to start doing something about it. Start now! It takes time to earn a positive reputation online, so companies as well as individuals would do well to start improving their online footprint today.

If negative press or blog posts never happen, then what you're left with from your efforts is improved visibility on search engines which can help increase traffic and sales. If dissenters do start to publish about your brand in the future, you'll already have numerous high ranking web pages occupying the top search results.

Latest Comments in  posts

No Comments Yet.

You must sign-in or sign-up to comment on this post.

Franchising Expert
mleonard_80
Ask Mark Leonard, Our
Franchising Expert,
Your Question
Small Business Expert
rlesonsky_80
Ask Rieva Lesonsky, Our
Small Business Expert,
Your Question
B2B Sales Expert
jkonrath_80
Ask Jill Konrath, Our
B2B Sales Expert,
Your Question
Sales Expert
krosen_80
Ask Keith Rosen, Our
Sales Expert,
Your Question
Business Travel Expert
krosen_80
Ask Ken Walker, Our
Business Travel Expert,
Your Question
Finance Expert
sthacker_80
Ask Sam Thacker, Our
Finance Expert,
Your Question
Invention Expert
Ask Stephen Key, Our
Expert on Licensing Your
Invention, a Question